HIV-1 competition experiments in humanized mice show that APOBEC3H imposes selective pressure and promotes virus adaptation

by Yusuke Nakano, Naoko Misawa, Guillermo Juarez-Fernandez, Miyu Moriwaki, Shinji Nakaoka, Takaaki Funo, Eri Yamada, Andrew Soper, Rokusuke Yoshikawa, Diako Ebrahimi, Yuuya Tachiki, Shingo Iwami, Reuben S. Harris, Yoshio Koyanagi, Kei Sato

APOBEC3 (A3) family proteins are DNA cytosine deaminases recognized for contributing to HIV-1 restriction and mutation. Prior studies have demonstrated that A3D, A3F, and A3G enzymes elicit a robust anti-HIV-1 effect in cell cultures and in humanized mouse models. Human A3H is polymorphic and can be categorized into three phenotypes: stable, intermediate, and unstable. However, the anti-viral effect of endogenous A3H in vivo has yet to be examined. Here we utilize a hematopoietic stem cell-transplanted humanized mouse model and demonstrate that stable A3H robustly affects HIV-1 fitness in vivo. In contrast, the selection pressure mediated by intermediate A3H is relaxed. Intriguingly, viral genomic RNA sequencing reveled that HIV-1 frequently adapts to better counteract stable A3H during replication in humanized mice. Molecular phylogenetic analyses and mathematical modeling suggest that stable A3H may be a critical factor in human-to-human viral transmission. Taken together, this study provides evidence that stable variants of A3H impose selective pressure on HIV-1.

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